SFA Ready For Southland Championships
10/30/2009 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 30, 2009
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - When Stephen F. Austin toes the line Saturday morning at the Southland Conference Cross Country Championships, the Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks will have more on the line than a conference title. The teams have spent their entire fall semester -- and most of the summer -- preparing specifically for this race and the one that follows it.
Head coach Lou Snelling thinks his squads are ready.
"I feel good about what we've done to this point with our training and with our racing," he said. "I don't know how much more we could have done or what we could have done differently. Our preparation has put us at the point where I feel like we're in the mix for a conference title."
That preparation has included a couple of strong performances in SFA's only competitive meets of the season. Both the men's and women's teams turned in top 10 finishes at the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree, a meet that featured multiple nationally and regionally ranked teams.
A week later on short rest, the Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks both posted wins at the Florida State Invitational. The men were especially dominant, sweeping the top three individual slots and putting all five scoring runners in the top 10. The Ladyjacks put four of their top five finishers among the first 10 collegiate runners.
"Our season definitely wasn't built around those two meets, we were just using them to get to where we wanted to go," Snelling said. "In that perspective, I was happy with what we did there.
"Especially with OSU, to jump into that level of competition and that type of meet, right off the bat; that's challenging. But we had solid team results and solid individual results, and I feel like we got everything we needed to out of those meets."
More importantly, Snelling garnered some race experience for his young squad that features multiple underclassmen on each side of the gender line.
"OSU was more like a regional setting with the large field, and FSU was more like a conference setting with more one-on-one racing," the coach said. "We dealt with both those settings well and got everything out of those races that we needed to."
All that remains for SFA is to turn that experience into a strong showing at the Southland Championships, a feat that should prove challenging. Both the Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks return all the key pieces from the units that finished second at last year's league championships. But defending champions Lamar (men) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (women) look strong again, heading into Saturday's races.
"I think we're the underdogs on both sides," Snelling said. "Corpus has most everybody back from last season on the women's side. On the men's side, Lamar is also defending a title, and they return a lot of talent.
"But then you look at the regional rankings, and it's real close. With the men, Lamar is four and we're five. With the women, Corpus is seven and we're eight. This thing is going to be decided by only a few points in both races."
Key to making sure SFA ends up on the proper side of that slim margin is a good showing from the back of the pack in each race. The Lumberjacks are led by the strong, experienced trio of fifth-year senior Keith Mahipala, junior Dennis Yeats and redshirt sophomore Mitch Ownbey.
"Our first three have to go out and run well, and they should be able to do that," Snelling said. "They're the most experienced group on the team. We need them to be in the top 10 and take advantage of some of the opportunities I think they're going to have."
Sophomores Harmon McClanahan, Xavier Rodriguez, Adam Saloom and Logan Smart will provide the depth for the 'Jacks.
"They're younger than our top guys, but they're all in their second year," Snelling said. "I feel good about those guys because they've all stepped up in the past, whether it was in cross country or outdoor track."
In the women's race, SFA will be led by junior Amy Shackelford and sophomore Stephanie Ganter. Each runner has earned a Southland Athlete of the Week honor this season. Both posted all-conference performances in track last spring, and Ganter was an All-SLC and SLC Freshman of the Year selection at the 2008 cross country meet.
"Stephanie and Amy have done a lot to this point," Snelling said. "They've got the accomplishments and the experience, and they're really fit right now. I know they're going to get out well and beat a lot of people. I feel good having those two at the front for us."
Behind the leaders, the Ladyjacks will have a mix of young talent and experience filling out the field. Juniors Megan Jenkins and Marie Flores have each consistently found a place in the team's top five, as has true freshman Haley Parsons. Sophomores Brette Fleming-Wood and Randi Wymer, along with junior Meredith Blocker, give SFA strong depth.
"The rest of the girls, with the exception of Haley, they have a decent amount of experience," Snelling said. "They've been to the conference meet at least once, and some of them even ran a conference meet on this particular course two years ago."
Saturday's meet will begin at 8:30 a.m. with the men's 8,000-meter run. The women's 6,000-meter race is scheduled to start at 9:15.
Results will be available on the Southland Conference web site.
-- SFA --
